Kingston 2014

This is my favourite photo of Kingston. Yeah, I know, it’s been doctored with some silly Photoshop antics, but it manages to captures the uniqueness of the city in a manner that only someone who has lived there would appreciate. The old S&R department store, a mainstay of downtown Kingston closed in 2009, but has since rebounded with gentrified ferocity as a mixed use, multi-story building. This was probably the most marked difference for me when I revisited Kingston last week for a the wedding of two good friends from planning school.

Given the whirlwind nature of this trip, I only had my lame Galaxy S4 camera. It manages decent photos, but has the focus power of one of those old disposable units. Good for candid friend photos, the occasional selfie, but not much else. I find mobile phone photos tend to look decent on handsets and tablets, but don’t hold up too well when you drag them up to the big screen.

Eastern Ontario in the fall is an especially gorgeous region of Canada (particularly Kingston). I have come to appreciate the setting even more during my past three and half years in the incredibly filthy and drab urban environment that is Fort St. John. I reconnected with a handful of old classmates from the Queen’s days. Four years later, yet nothing has changed. The conversations remain fluid and entertaining and the laughs remain the size of barrels. The wonders of solid friendships.